The Austrian advocacy organization NOYB submitted a complaint on Monday against the social media platform X, which is owned by Elon Musk.
The complaint alleges that the company has utilized users'
personal data to train its artificial intelligence (AI) systems without
obtaining proper consent, thereby violating EU privacy regulations.
Led by privacy advocate Max Schrems, NOYB has filed General
Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) complaints with nine European Union
authorities to increase pressure on the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC).
The DPC, which serves as the primary EU regulator for many
major U.S. internet companies due to their EU operations being based in
Ireland, has sought an order to suspend or limit X's processing of user data
for the development, training, or enhancement of its AI systems.
An Irish court was informed last week that X has agreed to
refrain from training its AI systems using personal data collected from EU
users prior to providing them with the option to withdraw consent.
Nevertheless, NOYB emphasized that the DPC complaint
primarily addresses issues related to mitigation measures and X's lack of
cooperation, rather than questioning the legality of the data processing
itself.
Schrems stated, "We aim to ensure that Twitter adheres
fully to EU law, which, at a minimum, necessitates obtaining user consent in
this context," referring to X by its former name.
During the previous week's hearing, the Irish court
determined that X had only allowed users to object several weeks after data
collection had commenced.
X did not respond immediately to a request for comment on
Monday.
The X Global Government Affairs account indicated on Friday
that the company would continue to collaborate with the DPC regarding
AI-related matters.
In June, Meta, the parent company of Facebook, announced
that it would postpone the launch of its AI assistant in Europe after the Irish
DPC advised a delay.
NOYB has also filed complaints in various countries
concerning the use of personal data for training software in this instance.